The global distribution of special needs dentistry across dental school curricula.

Introduction: Special needs dentistry (SND) is an emerging dental specialty, with ongoing developments in education and clinical practice focused towards the tailored management of individuals with special needs (SN). Patients with SN have a higher prevalence of oral diseases and unmet dental needs compared to the general population. Although inadequate training and experience in managing patients with SN has been highlighted as a significant barrier to accessing care, there is limited data about the extent of SND teaching at the entry-to-practice or higher levels.

Early to midterm results with the radial artery in coronary artery bypass grafting following autotransplantation without pharmacological manipulation.

Background: In our unit when the radial artery is used as a conduit for myocardial revascularization routine, postoperative calcium-channel blockade is not practised. To preserve the radial artery, it is freed from the surrounding structures together with its venae commitantes and then left, in situ, in circulation, until needed for grafting. We evaluated the early to midterm patency of the radial artery using this strategy in our patients.

Fish oil before cardiac surgery: neutrophil activation is unaffected but myocardial damage is moderated.

Could pre-operative dietary intervention with fish oil reduce neutrophil activation and myocardial damage associated with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB)? Patients were randomised to receive either 8 g/day fish oil (n=22) or placebo (n=18) for 6 weeks. Neutrophil activation, apoptosis and cardiac damage were measured. Demographics and operative variables were similar.